WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed to deploy the military to “dominate the streets” of America and federal forces followed his lead, aggressively clearing a Washington park of protesters with tear gas so he could walk to a church and pose with a Bible. Across the nation, cities were engulfed in more violence and destruction.
In New York City, nonviolent demonstrations were punctuated by people smashing storefront windows near Rockefeller Center and breaching the doors into the storied Macy’s store on 34th Street, littering parts of Manhattan with broken glass. A vehicle plowed through a group of law enforcement officers at a demonstration in Buffalo, injuring at least two.
Demonstrations erupted from Philadelphia, where hundreds of protesters spilled onto a highway in the heart of the city, to Atlanta, where police fired tear gas at demonstrators, to Nashville, where more than 60 National Guard soldiers put down their riot shields at the request of peaceful protesters who had gathered in front of Tennessee’s state Capitol to honor George Floyd.